By Caroline Hamar

 

‘More diverse teams are a better place to work and drive better business results,’ explained Michelle Zatlyn, President and COO of Cloudflare, during her welcome keynote for Cloudflare’s Black Woman In Tech event. The panel, hosted by Cloudflare on the 5th of October in their London office, was held to celebrate, encourage and support black women in their pursuit of successful and fulfilling careers in tech.

 

Cloudflare is a connectivity cloud company that assists over 4 million companies around the world to bring their digital experiences to life. Having a diverse workforce with a wide range of experiences and points of view is vital to this mission, as, Michelle argued, it means that the company are ‘building the right products and finding the right solutions.’ They are very proud that over 30% of their team are women and 30% are in leadership roles as women.

 

Whilst it is estimated that 26% of all tech roles are taken by women, black and Hispanic women are estimated to make up only 3% of the tech workforce. This event was hosted to bring attention to the lack of representation of black women in the tech industry. It addresses the fact that only a small number of black women are usually present in teams and departments and more often than not, is the only black woman in the room.

 

The panel was presented by Jade Williams and consisted of tech talents such as Regional Marketing Manager Kyra Meier-Klodt, Sales Team Lila Rachdia and Technical Writer Maddy Onyehara, who each shared their advice and experience being women of colour in the tech industry, beginning with how they began their journeys into the industry.

 

‘I took a year off after high school. I was looking for a job and I found a position in a marketing agency and that sparked my curiosity, so I decided to study computer sciences at university and that took off my career. Partially, I chose this path because of my curiosity and desire to understand what happens behind the website.’ – Maddy Onyehara.

 

‘I chose tech because firstly I went to university and studied finance and there was this element of sciences that I was lacking. Tech was the industry that was developing all the time and every day was not the same as the next day, everything was moving. And it was kind of who I am, today I am somebody who I was not yesterday and I’m not going to be tomorrow so this is what attracted me to tech.’ – Lila Rachdia.

 

‘I just saw that tech was taking off so when I came out of university I was like “So what job is going to get me paid?” And tech was really the option. I started in sales but with a background in psychology, and I always wanted to work in marketing. So after a year of gruelling sales, I made the switch and was lucky enough to find Cloudflare.’ – Kyra Meier-Klodt.

 

The main message of the panel became one of community. ‘It’s not just me, I look at the people around me, friends that I’ve got, mentors that I’ve got – managers, directors – and I talk to people who will help me,’ Lila explains. ‘It’s been very important for me to surround myself with mentors who are black ladies, Muslim women, brown women, just for me to be able to relate to. Knowing that you have ladies that are capable of breaking the glass ceilings and walls for you is very important.’

 

The panel highlighted the importance of allies, mentors, friends and family when it comes to rising in the tech industry as a black woman. ‘Personally, all the women in my life play a huge role in making me want to try harder and do more,’ Kyra explained. ‘Specifically my Grandmother. I think about her regularly. She was in the first female cohort in Ghana to go to university ever, one of the first four women. Whenever I’m feeling overwhelmed or doubting myself, I think about her context and how she must have felt at university, and it inspires me to push through that doubt and succeed.’

 

Maddy spoke of things coming full circle, as after being inspired by her mentor she became a mentor for a project at her university: ‘It’s nice, mentors are very useful because when you are in university you don’t actually know what’s out there, so mentors work as like a bridge to help you understand that information and to make good choices about what path you take.’

 

Lila shared some beautiful wisdom passed down to her from her father:

 

‘Lila, it’s a jungle out there, and there’s two choices you can make. Either you can go straight into the jungle with the animals and befriend them and come out with Alex and Marty from Madagascar, and that’s your goal – to get out of it. Or you can sit down and cry at the bottom of them baobab and let the animals eat you alive. So my point here is to focus on the goal and not look at the problems. Ask yourself: what solutions can I bring? I came so far that I cannot give up now.’

 

Finally, Tracye Shaw, Head of Commercial Mid-Market, closed the event with a spotlight focusing on not labelling or categorising people and instead opening ourselves up to see all parts of people:

 

‘As we go throughout today what I want you to think about is the impact of categorical thinking, of thinking someone is wholly good or wholly bad. I want to drag you out of your corners. Categorical thinking is putting a label on something and attributing traits or qualities to that particular thing, and that’s dangerous because when you think of anything categorically you tend to treat everyone like that the same and then anyone who doesn’t fit that label is “different” is “other” is “less than”.’

 

The Heroica x Cloudflare Black Woman in Tech was an event that showed the importance of communication and conversation around topics of diversity to make sure the tech industry isn’t just moving forward but moving forward in a way which makes true, lasting impacts.

 

Statistics link - https://www.womenintech.co.uk/8-facts-women-tech-industry